(Trinidad Express) Attorney Kerywn Garcia, SC, the husband of President Christine Kangaloo, has been appointed by Massy to investigate the claims made by its former executive vice president of business integrity and group general counsel Angélique Parisot-Potter about its executive leadership programme.
The Sunday Guardian understands that the two-member investigations team include attorney Vishma Jaisingh.
Last month, Garcia became the centre of the Joint Trade Union Movement’s (JTUM) ire after it alleged, without providing evidence, that there may be a possible conflict of interest in a matter he had before the Industrial Court and the non-renewal of the contract of former Industrial Court president Deborah Thomas-Felix. Garcia never responded to queries by the Sunday Guardian on this matter.
Meanwhile, Massy was initially doing two investigations—one into Parisot-Potter’s conduct at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) and another into her 13-page letter of concern which she submitted to President and chief executive Gervase Warner about the leadership programme.
However, her resignation on December 27 negated the need for an investigation into her conduct.
After Massy appointed Garcia, it halted its executive leadership programme with Florida-based Delphi Sphere Consulting, run by a couple—Paul Dominguez and Indira Dial-Dominguez.
Last week, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Guardian, Parisot-Potter said that to date, she has not been contacted to take part in the investigation even though her lawyer had written to Massy expressing her willingness to do so.
“It is now almost six weeks since I submitted the 13-page document to the CEO and I have had no discussion on many of the concerns I raised in my capacity as (the General Counsel) and an employee,” she had said.
Parisot-Potter said her misgivings about the programme stemmed from her having to do it.
“I had to do the programme. I did not have a choice. I was clearly and repeatedly told that it was a condition for continued employment and opportunity by senior members of the executive management team—I cannot move forward with Massy without doing this programme.
“The Delphi experience was and is a serious matter in its violations of my religious beliefs and the beliefs of others, but Delphi in itself was not the problem. Delphi is symptomatic of the real issues.
“The problem is that the contracting and enforced deployment of Delphi was symptomatic of a flawed system of governance and fiduciary oversight—issues I repeatedly raised. In some cases, for which I was attacked, and told that I was not a leader because I didn’t conform,” she said.
“It has been and it is my professional opinion, that this matter and the others I raised are of questionable ethical practices and a very fragile governance system that is in dire need of urgent repair,” she had told the Sunday Guardian last week.
On December 18, at the company’s 100th annual general meeting, Parisot-Potter took to the floor during the question and answer period and voiced concerns about the conglomerate’s executive leadership consultant.
Parisot-Potter claimed that Delphi engages in bizarre rituals for executives, that their leadership programme is a drain of scarce foreign exchange and that the couple leading the programme appear to exert disproportionate influence over Massy’s executive team.
She told the company’s board of directors, chaired by Robert Riley, that she had written to Warner but received no communication on the matter so she was compelled to raise the matter at the AGM.
